Five Years of Parenting {The Ordinary Moments}

Today is LP’s fifth Birthday and although I have spent every day of those last five years being a Mummy I still don’t know where those years have gone. It feels like yesterday I was bouncing on a ball, in my PJs, willing my baby to arrive safely, wondering whether it would be a boy or girl and still having wobbles over our chosen names.

Those last five years have been a blue. We went from being a couple, with a house and dreams of one day becoming a family to having our gorgeous LP and soon after having Little Man too. That dream had become a reality and we’d gone from just the two of us to being a family.

We spent twenty months with LP and then Little Man joined our life, and over three years later the four of us couldn’t be closer. We are a solid unit and it feels so right. We have a hand to hold each, we pair up on days out and the children take it in turns to have sleepovers in each other’s rooms.

Over those years Dave and I have aged, we’ve grown – together and as people. We are as much a team as we were before the children came along and becoming parents has shaped us, pushed us in this new direction and filled a gap in our lives that we didn’t even know was there until LP was born.

I look at photos of me when LP was born and I look so young. I feel like becoming a parent has aged me so much but really it has just made me mature. I have gone from being a young newly wed, managing a bank and going out as much as possible to being a Mummy, working part time and having this blog – it’s hard to believe that five years ago the world of blogging was unknown to me.

Five years ago I didn’t know how to change a nappy, I didn’t know about afterpains, that jelly belly feeling after having a baby, the hair loss, or how difficult breastfeeding can be. I didn’t know anything – but I had such a great time learning. Those first weeks and months of being parents were the steepest learning curve of my life – but one that I really enjoyed.

Now, it feels like that learning curve is less steep, it’s flattened out and we’re able to just enjoy the ride. Both of our children are potty trained, they can both feed themselves, they can put their shoes on by themselves and they’re both nearly there with getting dressed too. They have so much independence that makes life that bit easier.

LP and Little Man entertain each other and often, on days out, Dave will put his arm around me. I’ll rest my head against his shoulder and we’ll take a moment to watch the two of them. LP and Little Man, literally our whole world, playing in front of us.

They may be playing, sitting having lunch or paddling in the sea. But seeing them together, the two children that we hoped for, that we were lucky enough to bring into the world and who have grown to be such amazing little people – seeing that makes me so happy. It makes me so proud and it makes me appreciate the last five years so much.

Today Dave and I will we toasting five years of parenting. Five years of getting to this point where we can look at our family and smile. Where we can look at LP and Little Man and realise the hard times at the start were so worth it, the bumps in the road weren’t that bumpy at all and that we have only been parents for five year. Who knows what the next five years will bring?

Five Years of Parenting {The Ordinary Moments}

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3 Comments

  1. Oh Donna I love this, such a beautiful post. Becoming a parent really is the most precious gift you can be given. You and Dave should totally have a toast, you’ve raised 2 lovely children and should be very proud of them and yourselves x #theordinarymoments

  2. This is such a beautiful post Donna and I can’t believe your gorgeous little LP is five. I feel like I have really seen her grow up through your blog the last couple of years I have been reading it. I still remember that first photo of her on her first day of school and she just looked so young and little to be starting school. She seems to have grown up and flourished this year. I hope she has had a lovely birthday. And hats off to you, being a parent for five years is such a milestone. xx

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